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The Cost Of Ignoring Real Estate

Large companies could save from 5% to 40% by optimizing their real estate portfolios.

Many large companies with significant property holdings do a poor job of managing, utilizing or even keeping track of their real estate holdings, and could be spending way too much on office buildings, retail or manufacturing space, according to a recent survey by Accenture.

If large companies optimized their real estate portfolios, “they could save anywhere from 5% to 40% of what they are spending on real estate,” says Athena Reilly, global lead for Accenture Real Estate Solutions.

Accenture surveyed companies that had at least $5 billion in revenue and 10 million square feet of property.

Sixty percent admit that their company’s real estate portfolio “lacked the transparency and insight needed to support decision-making.” Only 8% of the companies surveyed have integrated property holdings into their ERP systems, and only 3% say their company has a customized real estate data warehouse.

“What we’re seeing is that managements are starting to try to centralize property oversight so they can gain more transparency across their portfolio,” says Reilly. “They’re also getting more interested in analytics.”

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